PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Democrat Frank Caprio, the former R.I. treasurer, received his party's endorsement in his bid to return to that office, while the four gubernatorial candidates agreed not to seek endorsements in the name of party unity.

Richard Salit Journal Staff Writer richsalit

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — The Democratic endorsements for statewide and federal office, voted on by party loyalists at a meeting Sunday night at the Convention Center, were as remarkable for who they didn’t anoint as for who they did.

Missing out on an endorsement were all four of the Democrats running for governor — Providence Mayor Angel Taveras, General Treasurer Gina Raimondo, Clay Pell and Todd Giroux. All had agreed not to seek the endorsement in the name of party unity.

Securing an endorsement was Frank Caprio, who is running for general treasurer after a disastrous general election campaign for governor in 2010. It was a loss he felt compelled to apologize for during his acceptance speech to several hundred fellow Democrats on Sunday night.

“Four years ago, this group gave me its nomination and I let you down,” Caprio said.

Not only did he acknowledge not running an effective campaign, “I said things I shouldn’t have said,” he said.

He didn’t have to explain what he meant. A week before the 2010 election, he famously told President Obama he “could take his endorsement and really shove it” after Mr. Obama declined to takes sides in Caprio’s race against Republican-turned-independent Lincoln Chafee, who went on to win (and eventually become a Democrat).

“I will not let you down this time,” Caprio promised the audience.

Caprio won the endorsement by outpolling two other nominees, former auditor general Ernest Almonte and investment adviser Seth Magaziner, son of Ira Magaziner, the former health-care adviser to President Bill Clinton.

The gubernatorial candidates had “graciously” agreed not to seek an endorsement, new House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello said in his opening remarks.

In May, none of the candidates could muster a majority of supporters in four votes of the Rhode Island Association of Democratic City and Town Chairs; Taveras and Raimondo came within one vote of each other.

In a general election, one of the Democrats will face either Cranston Mayor Allan Fung or Ken Block, the two Republican candidates.

While the party hasn’t skipped endorsing a governor since 2002, Mattiello said he was pleased that the candidates had agreed to “put the party above their own particular interests.…We will come out of the primary stronger and we will win in November.”

For the most part, the evening lacked any surprises. Mattiello had announced on Wednesday that the three major candidates for governor had agreed not to seek endorsements.

Beyond that, all of the incumbents won endorsements: Representatives David Cicilline and James Langevin, Sen. Jack Reed and Attorney General Peter Kilmartin. All took to the podium to offer their thanks and they pledged to work hard for another term.

The only other contested race, apart from general treasurer, was for secretary of state. Guillaume de Ramel, a Newport investor, easily won the endorsement over fellow nominee Nellie Gorbea, a former deputy secretary of state.

Ramel first ran for the seat in 2006 against former North Providence Mayor A. Ralph Mollis. Mollis, now term-limited, is running for lieutenant governor. He was the only nominee for the party’s endorsement on Sunday.